I have been a Kids Life Coach, for over two decades and during this time, I have worked alone...and I have worked with a global network of coaches who have certified in using my Play Based Coaching System®. So, I know first hand what the difference is. First and foremost, if you are reading this and you are not part of our professional membership, my guess is that your work can at times be isolating. When you’re working solo, it’s easy to fall into a rhythm, with the same approaches and perspectives that you’ve grown comfortable with. For me, I saw how this easily led to what I like to call “tunnel vision”—a limited view of the possibilities and strategies that could be used to better serve the children you work with.

This is where being part of a professional membership of Kids Life Coaches across the world becomes invaluable. It’s not just about networking but it’s about expanding your own vision and gaining fresh insights that can transform your coaching practice. Peer-to-peer netw...

As a certified Kids Life Coach, your primary focus is to empower and support children through their unique challenges and help them develop essential life skills. Whether you work with neurotypical or neurodiverse children, your role is incredibly important, and maintaining a professional and ethical approach is essential for success—both for your clients and your business. One of the best ways to ensure this is by regularly conducting an ethics and admin audit and using coaching contracts. This is something our Level 3 Kids Life Coach Certification and our Level 4 Advanced Kids Life Coach Certification covers extensively. 

So let us spend some time now looking at why it is important to stay ethical ion your coaching business and why having systems in place is so critical. First of all let us be clear here. An ethics and admin audit isn’t just a routine check-up—it's a crucial process to ensure your coaching business is running smoothly, ethically, and in compliance with the necessary...

As a professional who works with children, I have always believed it is essential for me to understand the hormonal shifts pre-teens go through and how these changes impact their emotional and social development. Which is why part of our Kids Life Coach Certification  training looks at developmental stages. The pre-teen phase is often quite tricky because it is filled with mood swings and self-doubt.  The early stages of puberty, can be a confusing and challenging time for kids—and for the adults supporting them. Especially the parents, who often ask me for advice on how to deal with their moody kids who seem to change in personality overnight! LOL...I'm not a parent...but that can't be easy!

I always tell them that pre-teens, typically around the ages of 9 to 12, experience hormonal changes that can significantly affect their emotions, self-esteem, and relationships with their family and friends. I also reassure them that as a life coach for children, I understand these changes from ...

Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA) is a behaviour profile seen in some children, characterised by an extreme avoidance of everyday demands and expectations. This condition, first identified by child psychologist Elizabeth Newson in the 1980s, is now recognised as part of the autism spectrum by many professionals, though it is not yet officially classified as such in diagnostic manuals. 

So when a child diagnosed with PDA became one of my clients, I learnt first hand how my play based coaching methods proved to be very effective for this "label". As a general rule, one of the first things I teach my Kids Life Coach Certification students is that as coaches we never ever subscribe to labels but we do subscribe to the potential and opportunity for improvement in every child. 

For the purposes of this blog let us assume that the child I was coaching did have PDA. He exhibited a range of behaviours, including resisting and avoiding the ordinary demands of life, like me asking him to sit ...

As life coaches, we know that working with children often requires a unique, engaging approach. Children, especially those who tend to be excessively negative, benefit greatly from learning through play. Play is an incredibly powerful tool that can help children shift their mindset, regulate their emotions, and reframe negative thinking in a fun and natural way. Here are some top tips for coaching children to overcome excessive negativity, using some fun Play Based Coaching® tactics that promote positivity and resilience.

1. Create a Safe Play Space for Emotions
Before diving into the techniques, it’s important to establish a space where children can feel free to express themselves. Through play, children often feel more comfortable opening up about their emotions. You can use role-playing games to act out different scenarios where children express frustration or sadness. This not only allows children to process their emotions but also provides a healthy outlet for them to release nega...

Valentine's Day is the perfect opportunity for teaching love, relationships, and healthy boundaries. The 14th of February is often thought of as a time to celebrate romantic love, friendship, and connection but as a Kids Life Coach, this can be a powerful moment to guide children through conversations about love, respect, relationships, and boundaries. Doing this in a way that's age-appropriate and meaningful can be a powerful opportunity because it's a chance to introduce the concepts of sex education and relationship dynamics in a loving, safe, and inclusive environment.

So how can you use Valentine's Day as a springboard for discussing these topics as a Kids Life Coach? Incorporating the themes of love, compassion, and healthy relationships into your coaching sessions in the month of love. Use these concepts to plan your age appropriate conversations around these concepts:  

Love and Kindness: More Than Just a Feeling

Valentine’s Day offers a beautiful opportunity to talk about l...

As a Play Based Coach, I’ve seen firsthand how transformative play can be for children. It’s more than just fun—it’s a powerful tool for growth, learning, and emotional development. But here's the thing: while play is a crucial part of a child’s development, it’s not always enough on its own. To truly support a child, it’s essential to collaborate with professionals from other disciplines.

Why? Because no one person has all the answers, and each professional brings a unique perspective that can enrich the support a child receives.

Holistic Support for the Whole Child

When a child is struggling, whether emotionally, socially, or academically, it’s rarely about just one area of their life. A child’s struggles often intersect with family dynamics, mental health, learning difficulties, or even physical well-being. As a Play Based Coach, I can guide them through powerful moments of self-discovery and resilience in a playful environment, but sometimes, they need more—perhaps a therapist f...

As a Kids Life Coach, one of the most challenging yet rewarding aspects of your work is helping children navigate the complex emotions that come with grief. Grief is a universal experience, but for children, it can be particularly bewildering and overwhelming. Having recently lost a friend to brain cancer and seeing her eight beautiful grandchildren left behind, I really felt prompted to give you some guidance on how we, as Kids Life Coaches, can support children through this difficult journey.

Understanding Children's Grief

Children's understanding and experience of grief can vary greatly depending on their age, developmental stage, and personal circumstances. It's important to remember that there's no 'right' way for a child to grieve. Their reactions can range from sadness and anger to confusion or even apparent indifference. As Kids Life Coaches, our role is to provide a safe and supportive space not only for the child we are coaching but for their siblings and parents, to expres...

As a life coach for children, I often emphasise the importance of honesty in my family coaching sessions—but how do we help families truly internalise this value? I often use the example of the childhood game "Truth and Dare" to shed light on why it can sometimes be difficult to show up with authenticity and to stay grounded in integrity. 

At first glance, *Truth and Dare* may seem like just a lighthearted game, full of giggles and challenges, but if we look deeper, we can see how it mirrors the challenges and rewards of telling the truth in real life. The “truth” part of the game is particularly significant because it forces players to confront the uncomfortable, the awkward, or the unknown about themselves and others. In a world where kids are constantly navigating new social pressures, "Truth and Dare" provides a safe space to practice vulnerability, build courage, and understand the value of transparency. However if not properly guided and supported, children can also sometimes le...

Since establishing the Kids Life Studio® Coach Academy in 2014, it has always been important to equip our students to be able to transfer and apply the theory we teach online, into real-life situations. 

In my experience knowledge is something that anybody can acquire, especially in this age of digital access with answers at our fingertips. But to truly be effective as a Kids Life Coach, it is about how you apply what you have learnt. Most importantly, to apply what you have learnt is about knowing who you are learning from and making sure they know their stuff! Owning the process of acquiring you knowledge and maintaining your lifelong learning is about discerning the white noise from what actually matters when it comes to coaching children! 

"Theory without practice is just as incomplete as practice without theory!  If you leave your personal and professional growth as a Kids Life Coach to randomness, you’ll forever be chained to mediocrity."

The reason why so many heart centred p...